A Darkened World: Plot bunny adoption center
by SnowFallsDown
Summary: Hermione Granger struggles to survive in a world swallowed by the darkness. As she tries to protect her ragtag family from the "Shadows" she meets a boy with wand that says she is witch. A Harry Potter AU. See my profile about adopting this bunny!


See my profile for more info on the plot bunny adoption system! It needs a good home!

I do not own Harry Potter…obviously….

A young woman with very bushy hair shifted uncomfortably on her shelf. Yes, her shelf. It was her bookshelf to be precise and she thought it was best place to sleep in the whole library. A few of the other kids thought she was exceedingly clever and copied her. Others just thought she was weird. But then, Seers were given a great deal of leeway and allowed to act strangely. They wouldn't be alive if they didn't have some like her.

A teen a few years younger than the first walked over to the sleeping one in question. She looked over her for moment then proceeded to rip away the blanket covering her. The woman on the shelf merely rolled over. The teen rolled her eyes in way the described just how many times they had gone through this particular routine. She thought of the numerous ways to wake her up. Water was too precious to waste, but there was always pulling her off the self, pulling her hair, setting the little ones on her, and then there was always grabbing her ass. She snickered as she remembered the last time she pulled that one. Deciding it was too soon to try that again, she picked up a stray book.

After flipping through a few pages of _Paradise Lost_, she slammed the book shut. The bushy haired girl immediately woke up and hit her head on the shelf above her. Again. "Damnit, Marlene!" she exclaimed as she her rubbed her poor forehead.

Marlene just chuckled, "And that's why I don't sleep on the selves like you."

"Oh, shut it and give me back Milton." She handed the worn tome back without a fuss. They all knew how much she valued her books. They all knew how important it was to have something to hold on to. For most of them, it was each other. Hermione, on the other hand, she had her books. It was probably safer that way.

Hermione looked towards the window, "Is time for breakfast already."

"Past actually, thought you might like a little extra rest for the busy day today," Marlene replied.

The older girl grimaced. She hated sleeping so late. It was too easy to keep sleeping with day and night being so similar. Daytime just meant you didn't need a torch, electric or otherwise, to see. She wondered briefly why they hadn't simply changed day to twilight; it would be a far better description. Nostalgia perhaps, or just because there was no one left the change it.

Walking out from the between the shelves, the two girls found a circle of teenagers and young adults sitting around a fire in a shallow metal pan sitting on a few rocks. The fire was some broken lumber and the kindling was pages from books. Hermione wasn't proud of this fact, but they had plenty of books on tax laws left. The people around the fire were all young and worn, Hermione was the oldest and was greeted with a range hellos, good mornings and silence.

She dutifully sat down and started eating the tin of beans that had been left out for her. After a few bites, Jacob spoke up, "We need to look for more food today." Hermione didn't say a word; just put another spoonful of beans in her mouth. The boy persisted, "Look, none of us like going out there, but we need food."

"You can't see them," she said flatly.

This sent a ripple through the others, and annoyed Jacob, "That is why we need you, Hermione!"

Marlene put a hand on her shoulder, "We are getting pretty low. And we might even find something better than beans!"

She looked at friend, "Do we have anything to trade? The Raven's Court group has a fairly good supply. They might be willing…"

Stephen broke her off, "All we have is your books and nobody is willing to trade for them."

Hermione bit her lip, trying to rack her brains for some other solution. She knew there wasn't one. Fear, rational and otherwise, can drive a person to seek out the impossible, knowing they will never find it. She nodded and silently admitted that they did have to leave their relative safety and venture out in to the darkened world. As he looked out the window, trying to banish her worries, she thought for moment she saw a silver flash.

A little way later, Hermione, Stephen and Jacob were saying goodbye to all their friends. Hermione gave a big hug to Marlene, who was staying to watch the little ones. Said little ones, of various ages, were crowding around.

"Can't you stay and read us another story?"

Yeah! We need to find out what happens to Alice!"

She smiled, "I tell you what, as I come back you will get to hear about Alice meeting the Red Queen. She has really big head, bigger than mine and my hair put together!" She gestured with hands around head from emphasis. The boys and girls were overcome with many excited giggles. Marlene gave her a look and made her promise to be safe before she would shoo the children back to the second floor.

With the two boys behind, Hermione hesitantly put a hand on the ornate wooden doors. Taking a deep breath, she pushed them open just enough to get her head through. She looked around. The straight was empty save for normal amount refuse floating around. With a gesture to the boys, they left and went out into the wide empty world. She looked up and saw the ever present black stream the distance.

The buildings stood in mute testament to the way the city was long before these young people were born. They were gravestones, not only to people, but to civilizations. And even they crumbled. The trio, however, did not have the luxury to examine the philosophical implications of the ruined city they lived in. The boys gripped pieces of pipe and carefully watched for monsters they could not see and rival groups of survivors they could. The girl didn't bother to look around; she could sense them long before she could see them. She just focused on thought of curled on her shelf reading Milton or Dante, or reading to Marlene and the kids.

It had been nearly fifty years, they believed, since the world lost sun and was swallowed by the lingering dark. It was becoming increasingly difficult to find food; they had to travel farther and farther from safety. But it was to no avail. No one was producing food anymore, and their supply was quickly diminishing. There were rumors of farms and sanctuary outside the city. Hermione knew it would probably only be a few months, a year tops, before their ragtag family had to seek one of those places.

After a long walk, they ended up in a collection of houses. They picked one that looked to be in decent shape. Hermione pulled a pry bar out of her bag managed the jimmy the door open. She walked in the door and quickly gave a gasp and turned around. The boys instantly tensed up and wondered if they should run or if there was something the pipes could help against. She waved them off and they relaxed. Creeping in they found what startled her. Sitting on the couch of the living room was a pair of skeletons.

Stephen put a hand on her shoulder, "It's alright, Hermione." She glanced over to him and then to the skeletal faces. She suppressed another shudder and nodded. Jacob was already digging through the kitchen. The other two joined him in the search. Most of it was unusable, flour, bread, and pasta that had been sitting for decades.

Jacob was about to tell them to call it quits and move to the next house when he noticed there was a cupboard under the stairs. He shrugged and pulled the door open. He would have shouted if he was worried about making noise. Still he jumped up and down and gestured for the other two to join him. They cheered silently and had a group hug. The cupboard was filled with many tins of spam.

They tore off their packs and were stuffing them with all the tins they could carry. It would be tough and flavorless, but it was food! They might not have to scavenge for weeks. And it would even be good barter material. Hermione's mouth was watering thinking of the veggies they could get from the Ravens Court.

It was a joyous trio that left the house. They were so happy that it took the boys a few moments to realize that Hermione had frozen in her tracks. Her eyes were wide and staring at someplace in the street ahead of them. She pointed to empty space and they waited. They couldn't see it and knew their female friend was their only hope for survival. They also knew that not all of them would make it back

Hermione watched the shadow drift along the street. It was a tall cloaked figure and so far it had not noticed them. Now that she was paying attention she could feel that hollow spot in the pit of her stomach growing. It felt rather like someone filled her heart with ice and nearly frozen blood was spreading throughout her body.

Then the shadow stopped and turned its hooded head towards them.

"Run!" she yelled. Jacob turned and pushed them back towards the house. As much they wanted to, there was to time to argue. So they ran. They knew that Jacob would swing his pipe at the empty air for a few minutes and then…there would no more Jacob. Stephen and Hermione ran though the house and broke rather inelegantly through the back door. They jumped over the short fence and ran for their lives.

Her lungs burned, her legs ached, and the metal containers bounced painfully of her back. So focused was she on running, she failed to noticed that Stephen was no longer with her. She stopped and turned. Stephen was trapped in some nightmarish trance as another shadow bore down on him.

Hermione, in a rare moment of irrationality, leapt to try to save her friend. A strong arm pulled her back and she felt some fabric cover her. Whatever it was, it was translucent and she was unable to look away. The shadow had stopped right in front of her friend. It reached up with its black bony hands and pulled down its hood. She thought she screamed but heard no sound. It was like someone had stretched some kind of scaly and cancerous skin over a skeleton. Even its eye sockets were covered with the revolting skin. The shadow then grabbed either side of Stephen's face and clamped its horrible mouth over his. A few moments his dead body dropped to the ground

Hermione had instinctively wrapped her arms around the stranger and was now sobbing on their shoulder. Whoever they were they were receptive and gently rubbed her back. The stranger watched as the shadow looked around then departed to find some other victim. He stood and whispered to her, "We need to move, can you do that for me?"

She looked up and saw a young man with glasses and very messy black hair. He looked almost pleadingly at her. Hermione tried to respond and was shocked when not a single sound escaped her throated. The man looked confused then apologetic. Then did a very odd thing, he waved a nearly foot long stick in front of her face.

"There you can speak now. Sorry'

She blinked a couple times, and then said, "What is that?"

"My wand, look I know you are going to have lots of questions and I promise to answer. But right now, we need to go."

She nodded, stepped and noticed something a little disturbing. Her rescuer was wearing some kind of cloak and every bit of him it covered simply wasn't there. She could see straight through him. He offered his hand and it appeared out of nowhere. He gave her a rakish grin, "Invisibility cloak, now let's go"

She took his hand and they started running off in a direction Hermione didn't recognize. He didn't seem to mind talking so she asked him questions, mainly about the cloak that was still hiding most of his body from view. "I just don't see how it's possible. It can't be simple reflection, or you wouldn't see what's behind you. You would almost need every thread to refract the light from one side of the cloak from the other. But that's impossible…it's like magic!"

He turned to her after this, "My mom is going to _love_ you." She wasn't quite sure how to respond to the idea that she was going to meet the mother of the young she barely knew and saved her left with a physics-defying cloak. However, this had gotten her off her previous train of thought enough to notice that he was limping slightly.

"Did you hurt your leg badly?" she asked worriedly.

"Nah just crashed my broom."

You crashed your what!"


End file.
